About Us

The Body Saver, LLC is a family run business with safety for both rider & horse at the forefront of all we do. Colorado Native Cole Walker is holding the reins of this business. He has over 40 years experience starting colts as well as raising & training both horses and mules. Many of those early years were spent as a working cowboy and ranch manager. In addition to making great ranch horses, mountain horses and basic pleasure horses, his work with competitive/performance horses has proven to be very successful. Some of these disciplines include Reining Working Cow Horse, Versatility Ranch Horse, & Team Roping. While training full time, He did clinics for the AQHA, NVRHA, was listed as an AQHA Professional Horseman, and was CHA certified.

Cole comes from a long line of horseman

Coles heritage is where he gained a lot of his foundational knowledge & grit. His great grandfather brought his family to the area in covered wagons along with herds of cattle and horses. He trained and traded horses to help support his family. His Grandfather also trained horses. During the depression he would occasionally break wild mustangs in the town square of Santa Fe for 65 cents a ride. Cole tells how his dad & grandpa broke horses the hard way. “There was a snubbing post in the middle of a round pen. They would run a horse that had never been handled into the pen, rope it & snub it to the post. Horses would either choke themselves down or dad and grandpa would tie a hind leg up. They did whatever it would take to get that old Heiser bronc saddle and a bosal on. Grab an ear or nose, get on the horse and turn loose. They ‘d ride em till they quit bucking.  These horses needed to be broke enough in 30 days to ride in the mountains to gather & check cows. At times we rode 20 miles a day. Through trial & error, broken bones, and opportunities to ride with other trainers,  I realized that even though theses horses were doing “the job”, they weren’t  gentle…and they definitely weren’t trained to the degree I have come to appreciate!”

As Cole mentioned he went on to ride with other trainers. These trainers taught him a different way of starting young horses, as well techniques to take these horses to a much higher level of performance.  These colt starting methods used a lot of ground work to gentle a horse before you went forward with them. This understanding of an easier, more gradual way of starting colts is what years later prompted the creation of  The Body Saver.

Cole shares a story of 3 horses that were brought to his training facility from a rancher out of Texas. “I remember his hired men bringing the horses. There were two 5 year olds and a 6 year old. They weren’t exactly colts but they had never gotten started right. The hired man pointed to the grey gelding and told me that I for sure wouldn’t get that one broke – they had all tried him and they were never gettin’ on him again. This was back in 2004. At that time 75% of my training business was made up of the “30-60 day wonders” mixed with a lot of problem horses. When the customers would come to pick up their horses, We generally had them walking, trotting, loping & crossing water.  That year we started 32 colts. It was everything that me, my interns and hired help could do to keep it all going. We were all worn out!

The Body Saver created

This is when “Frog” (a good friend of mine) and I came up with the concept of the Body Saver. I got three Body Saver’s made up and It was like having 3 extra warm up riders. It gave us more time on the training, not just the breaking. Back to that old grey gelding. That horse didn’t initially trust anything or anybody. With the Body Saver we were able to take the needed time getting him used to more than just a saddle on his back. We ponied him with the body saver, then we ponied him with a slicker on the Body Saver. We put two little car tires on the Body Saver and ponied him.

Building a Foundation of Experience…

By the time we actually stepped on this horse, we had built a foundation of experience that allowed us to move forward efficiently and without a big fight. This horse never bucked, not even once with me! When the rancher from Texas came to get his horses, we could ride, open & close gates, rope and doctor cattle off of ALL 3 horses. When I got done roping a steer off the Gray Gelding, the hired man said, “I don’t care what you can do on that horse, I’ll never try to ride him again. The owner from Texas got on and rode him around for a while and said, “that’s right, you won’t, cause this is my horse now!” Now I sure would be lying if I said “It’s all because of the Body Saver – a lot of hard work goes into making a good horse. What I can say with all honestly is that it sure helped…and 15 years later, this training device is still helping me get the job done!!!